St John's post game thread

[REB1094]

I think the collapse started with ten minutes left in the first half. We started out on fire and ended up down at the half.

Unfortunately that's the trend this year. Play exceptionally well for short periods of time and then play average-to-poorly for the other 32 minutes

Starting to remind me more of 21-22 than 22-23

 

[Hunt for 7]

AK has not been the same since the concussion.

 

[Hunt for 7]

This place loves to live in the past.

2025, top two teams

Guards
Duke - 6’6” and 6’6”
Auburn - 6’7” and 6’4”

It’s trending boys. Coaches evolve, systems evolve.

The team that won it last year was 6’5” and 6’4”. Year before 6’5” and 6’5”. It’s even more important in running Hurley’s system effectively.

I was saying this before the year started. It was a clear issue. CBB is about guard play. Yes wings are important but when you have big guards that can penetrate it’s a whole different game. We have Liam who can penetrate. Ball is improving and if he comes back next year I think he will be better. He needs to spend all summer working on ball handling and going to the rim. It should be a physical summer for him running through pads and having coaches swipe at the ball to teach him how to play through contact. He could be star if he had an average ability to get to the hoop in crunch time.

 

[Deepster]

1) We have had trouble inbounding the ball all season. Pitino pressured us on every made basket and prevented our offense from getting set for a good 12-16 seconds every possession. Hurley never cracked the code on that.

2) Last year we ran offense through Donovan outside the paint. Pick and rolls, slips for alley oops, back door passes to Alex. When our centers have the ball outside the paint it’s all 100% dead clock that does NOTHING offensively. Both are pretty horrible passers.

 

[uchusky32]

Yup. Passing up shots he should take for worse shots is brutal. I’d rather see him go 0-10 than that.

I think what really changed the game vibe was bricking his 4th or 5th open 3 in the first half and then fouling St. John’s on a 3 for the 4 point play. Took the air out of the gym and kickstarted their 15-2 run.

Yes, I said that in the chat last night. That sequence was the killer. He became deflated. Didn't even look for a shot after that. But we didn't change our offense. And the ball would wind up stuck on the perimeter with the shot clock running out. Leading to us chucking up airballs.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

I was saying this before the year started. It was a clear issue. CBB is about guard play. Yes wings are important but when you have big guards that can penetrate it’s a whole different game. We have Liam who can penetrate. Ball is improving and if he comes back next year I think he will be better. He needs to spend all summer working on ball handling and going to the rim. It should be a physical summer for him running through pads and having coaches swipe at the ball to teach him how to play through contact. He could be star if he had an average ability to get to the hoop in crunch time.

It’s literally impossible to do this drill and not improve your handle tenfold. Ultimate hand-eye coordination that teaches a player to do dribble moves well while keeping their eyes up. Can’t cheat it.

 

[RuffRuff]

Mahaney is not our starting PG do why would he play 35 minutes?

He would have gotten swallowed whole and spit out. There is a reason he didn’t play much, and the minutes he has he looked scared.

1) We have had trouble inbounding the ball all season. Pitino pressured us on every made basket and prevented our offense from getting set for a good 12-16 seconds every possession. Hurley never cracked the code on that.

2) Last year we ran offense through Donovan outside the paint. Pick and rolls, slips for alley oops, back door passes to Alex. When our centers have the ball outside the paint it’s all 100% dead clock that does NOTHING offensively. Both are pretty horrible passers.

When not turning the ball over, the StJ full court ran a good 10 seconds off the shot clock before we even STARTED our offense, which after a few flips around the perimeter, drove us into panic as the clock wore down.

If you looked at the physical matchups on the court last night, we had one advantage - Tarris over Zubi. Tarris had 12p 15r and 3 blocks last night. He was dominant inside. With every perimeter defender smothering our 1-4, have no idea why we didn’t just find a way to dump it into Tarris to let him attempt to find offense near the basket. He would have gotten doubled quick, but also would have had a chance to find higher quality shots than we were seeing down the stretch. We had zero counter.

 

[mauconnfan]

He would have gotten swallowed whole and spit out. There is a reason he didn’t play much, and the minutes he has he looked scared.

When not turning the ball over, the StJ full court ran a good 10 seconds off the shot clock before we even STARTED our offense, which after a few flips around the perimeter, drove us into panic as the clock wore down.

If you looked at the physical matchups on the court last night, we had one advantage - Tarris over Zubi. Tarris had 12p 15r and 3 blocks last night. He was dominant inside. With every perimeter defender smothering our 1-4, have no idea why we didn’t just find a way to dump it into Tarris to let him attempt to find offense near the basket. He would have gotten doubled quick, but also would have had a chance to find higher quality shots than we were seeing down the stretch. We had zero counter.

7 shots from the spot we had an advantage. You’d think they would have thrown it in more but honestly we don’t have great interior passers out there.

 

[TheHorde]

Like I said it’s not good either way. He didn’t look too hobbled he just didn’t play well no excuse for the turnovers at all.

Didn’t look too hobbled? Wow agree to disagree. When this season is over I would not be at all surprised if we hear he played through an MCL sprain or slight meniscus tear. To my eyes he’s a different player than he was even 2-3 weeks ago. If he wasn’t a senior and if the team had better options, I bet he’d be sitting.

 

[Stinger92860]

Does anyone know what Nowell's injury is? We need him bac…..

It’s unclear that he has ever been here. Someone else compared him to Alterique, right now that sounds about right.

 

[RuffRuff]

7 shots from the spot we had an advantage. You’d think they would have thrown it in more but honestly we don’t have great interior passers out there.

Yup - and a half of those were probably offensive rebounds.

Sometimes you have to look at the court and ask yourself, who has the advantage one on one? We didn’t have any last night outside of Tarris. It’s why we used Adama the way we did in 2024. If a team is extending pressure that you can’t figure out, the counter is feeding into the low post. It just never seemed to cross the mind.

Outside of playing poorly, AK isn’t doing much in terms of leading this team into strategical adjustments. He’s good at ensuring pieces moving in the right direction in a script that is working, but doesn’t see the floor creatively. Very mechanical. Even his interviews feel stock at this point. Great kid but more and more feels like part of a conveyer belt than a manager.

 

[Gurleyman]

And that’s not good when he’s 4-15 and your star player. He and Tarris only bright spots.

I put it upthread, but Liam should be allowed to give a couple of his second half misses to Karaban. Multiple times, Alex refused to shoot when he got open off a screen, bogged down the offense, and then gave Liam a 911 pass at the end of the shot clock.

Liam did start slow, which is forgivable. But he was put in jail by his teammates a lot, which wasn’t fair to him.

 

[NickDanger]

Yes, I said that in the chat last night. That sequence was the killer. He became deflated. Didn't even look for a shot after that. But we didn't change our offense. And the ball would wind up stuck on the perimeter with the shot clock running out. Leading to us chucking up airballs.

There are no links to the chat on the board anymore that I can see. How do you locate it?

 

[Stinger92860]

Karaban was 22 of 47 from 3 (about 47% against much weaker competition) up to the point he got a concussion. Since the concussion he has been 24 of 91 (about 26%). Last season his 3P% was 37.9. Currently, this season it is 37.6. What does it mean - I am not sure, but statistically he is about where he was last year. But, he started the season with what looked to be an improved 3P shot. After a concussion his 3P% plummeted by almost 50% or by 21 percentage points. Is it possible that he is still suffering effects of the concussion? Maybe some vision issues?

Excellent point

 

[UC95-Duke00]

For the polyannas talking about where kemba’s team was at this point in the season - stop it. Put down the kool aid. This team is closer to the one that lost to New Mexico than the team from the last two years.

if memory serves, that Kemba team was in a similar but different position ... won Maui (entering the season unranked), lost to St John's (when we were struggling midseason) and won the National Championship ... I was at every game

 

[Jaydumo20]

This lose is on Hurley. You cannot continue to be so stubborn that you play your vets so much when they are giving you nothing. Why did AK play the entire second half and Stewart was no where to be found. You also had to foul there with only a 7 second difference in clock. They left Richmond on the floor and they should have fouled him. Even if they got the stop, the offense was struggling so bad, they would have struggled to get a shot off in time.

I think you have to play your vets in tough games like this. You want to win the game, sure, but you have to think long term. The vets are our starters and if they get pulled from these games how will they fare when things get tough again? Fans are like us are too quick to pull the plug because we don't have the patience great coaches have.

 

[SwingDog]

I don't see many people saying that despite all of our many health issues and deficiencies we lost by a total of 6 points and were in it until the final minute. Clean up just some of the flaws, like take a little better care of the basketball, and some of these close L's turn into W's.

 

[Hunt for 7]

Understood for McNeeley, but what about Nowell? Seems like he's been hurt for a long time.

We have no idea what he did to his ankle no video nothing. If the kid is hurt he is hurt. But Nowell after not playing for three weeks is going to be the player that changes that game for us. I hope he gets healthy and can be a guy who can penetrate then make something happen because unfortunately Mahaney is toast. He is not going to cut it night in and night out in a physical league. They play a whole different game in the WAC. St Mary is currently undefeated in league play or at least they were going into last night. Does not look like they are missing Mahaney.

 

[Northbound]

As had been said by many, last night Pitino did a masterful job of using pressure in the full and half court. Forcing the offense to start higher then usual after a press makes it messy - it gets late in the shot clock early and you get a forced shot as time is expiring. The offense that has all these actions and options is somewhat predicated on where it starts on the court and when it the clock it begins.

Turnovers are brutal - credit Marquette and St.John they have the type of players where they can extend defensive pressure, but it’s been an issue outside of those two games.

There’s a blueprint for making this team uncomfortable not sure most teams can follow it, but it there for all to see.

Just an aside I am no fan of Gus Johnson and it was a crime to call JC “Coach Cal”.

On to the next one.

 

[Hunt for 7]

I think the collapse started with ten minutes left in the first half. We started out on fire and ended up down at the half.

After AK missed three wide open threes that is when the wheels fell off. Those would have been dagger threes and let’s be honest they were wide open and we were lucky they did not break the backboard. They had no chance from the time they left his hand.

 

[mauconnfan]

I put it upthread, but Liam should be allowed to give a couple of his second half misses to Karaban. Multiple times, Alex refused to shoot when he got open off a screen, bogged down the offense, and then gave Liam a 911 pass at the end of the shot clock.

Liam did start slow, which is forgivable. But he was put in jail by his teammates a lot, which wasn’t fair to him.

Fair point and definitely true, thanks for the reminder. I think…. Lol

 

[SwingDog]

That was the game. They defended, we didn't.

We held them to 40% shooting and 68 points. We made it difficult for Richmond and overall they got very few easy shots. Our defense wasn't the problem.

 

[StllH8L8ner]

Honestly beyond wanting to throw my drink at the tv a couple of times and hearing my daughter’s friend who came over for a play date whispering “why does your dad talk to the TV?”, the highlight of the night for me was seeing Ben Gordon looking good, clean and healthy. 180 turn from the last time he was in the news…

 

[RuffRuff]

Put down the kool-aid is your response to a legitimate comparison?

UConn fans can be really narrow minded - we’ve experienced AT LEAST 3 teams that WON THE TITLE who were having genuine crises in-season. 4 of the 6 is probably correct. Teams that, after certain games, you’d have this EXACT opinion.

No one’s saying this team will be another, they’re just making the obvious and true comparison to past results.

You calling them insulting names does nothing to change that.

I think it’s time to stop using two highly highly unrepeatable runs as templates to anything. Savor them, bask in them, but expecting them to be examples for how it could happen again, please stop.